1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to displaying images associated with applications on a screen of a computing device, and more specifically, to automatically changing applications that actively display images on a window of a screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the capacity and performance of computing devices are enhanced, more and more applications are executed simultaneously on the computing devices. Some of these applications display images on the screen of the computing device in the form of windows to convey information to users or to interact with the users. As more applications are executed simultaneously on the computing device, the screen of the computing device becomes cluttered with numerous windows that compete for space on the screen. Although the size of each window may be small, the aggregate space taken up by the windows may add up to a considerable portion of the screen. Consequently, the user may need to minimize, inactive or close windows of certain applications that are less frequently used or not of immediate interest to the user in order to preserve screen space.
The applications displaying images on the screen could be widgets. Widgets are applications, typically of small data sizes, that provide information to the user associated with frequently used functions such as clocks, calendars, news readers, and stock tickers. Widgets are often registered with a widget engine running on a computing device to provide a platform on which various widgets can be executed. Most widgets generate windows on the screen to display images and convey information to the users. One distinguishing feature of such widgets is that the widgets often convey limited information about a certain subject. This means that multiple widgets need to be executed in order to convey various types of information to the user.
When multiple widgets are executed, it may become confusing for the user to find a particular window associated with a certain widget. In order to alleviate such confusion, many widget engines allow the windows for the widgets to be tiled in an organized manner. By tiling the windows of the widgets, however, the space on the screen taken up by the windows of the widgets is increased. Another way of arranging the widgets is by cascading the windows of the widgets. Cascading the windows has the advantage of reducing the screen space occupied by the windows, but the user must still manually sort through the windows to find the information the user wants.
The problem is exacerbated in mobile computing devices such as a smartphone or a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). Such mobile computing devices have very limited screen sizes. Therefore, the screen of mobile computing device quickly becomes occupied with windows after several applications are executed. Once the screen becomes filled with multiple windows, the user may need to navigate through a maze of windows, minimize the windows or deactivate the windows to find a particular window the user wants to view or interact with.